Tag Archives: JMG

Shares that like December

The following table lists the five FTSE 350 shares that have the best returns in December over the last ten years. For example, William Hill has an average return of 5.5% for the month of December. Each stock has risen in every December in the past ten years.

Shares that dislike December

The following table lists the three FTSE 350 shares that have the worst returns in December over the last ten years. For example, Centamin has an average return of -3.7% for the month of December. All three stocks have fallen in seven of the past ten years in December.

An equally-weighted portfolio of the above strong December stocks would have out-performed every year an equally-weighted portfolio of the above weak December stocks by an average of 7.9 percentage points in December for the past ten years.

The 2013 edition of the Almanac looks at the historic monthly performance of the FTSE 350 sectors. Here we look at the Equity Investment Instruments sector.

The following chart plots the average out-performance of the FTSE 350 Equity Investment Instruments sector over the FTSE 100 Index by month since 1999. For example, since 1999 on average the sector has out-performed the FTSE 100 Index by 1.9 percentage points in January.

Observations:

The strongest months have been January and May – the sector has under-performed the market only two times in January in the last 14 years.

The weakest month has been October – the sector has out-performed the market only five times in October in the last 14 years.